A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

The paschal canon, or rule, of Dionysius having become the standing rule, for the celebration of Easter, to all the Western Churches, it will be proper briefly to explain it. The particulars of it are as follows: viz. That Easter be always on the Sunday next after the Jewish Passover; that, the Jewish Passover being always on the fourteenth day of the first vernal moon, the Christian Easter is always to be the next Sunday after the said fourteenth day of that moon; that, to avoid all conformity with the Jews in this matter, if the fourteenth day of the said moon be on a Sunday, this festival is to be deferred to the Sunday following; that the first vernal moon is that, whose fourteenth day is either upon the day of the vernal equinox, or the next fourteenth day after it; that the vernal equinox, according to the Council of Nice, is fixed to the twenty-first day of March; that therefore the first vernal moon, according to this rule, is that, whose fourteenth day falls upon the 21st of March, or the first fourteenth day after; that the next Sunday after the fourteenth day of the vernal moon (which is called the paschal term) is always Easter day; that, therefore, the earliest paschal term being the 21st of March, the 22nd of March is the earliest Easter possible; and the 18th of April being the latest paschal term, the seventh day after, that is, the 25th of April, is the latest Easter possible; that the cycle of the moon, or golden number, always shows us the first day of the paschal moon, and the cycle of the sun, or dominical letter, always shows us which is the next Sunday after.—Prideaux, Connect. part ii. b. iv.

In the Romish Church, on Easter eve, the bells are rung about four in the afternoon; the ornaments of the churches and altars are changed from black to white; and the paschal taper is placed in a great candlestick made in the shape of an angel. On the morning of Easter Sunday, matins are said before day-break, because our Saviour rose at that time. When the pope officiates, two cardinal deacons are placed on the right and left of the altar, dressed in white robes, to represent the two angels who watched our Saviour’s sepulchre.—Sacra Cerem. Eccl. Rom. lib. ii.

In the Greek Church, it is usual, on Easter day, upon meeting their friends, to greet them with this salutation, “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead;” to which the person accosted replies, “He is risen indeed.” On Good Friday, two priests carry in procession, on their shoulders, the picture or representation of a tomb, in which the crucified Jesus, painted on a board, is deposited. On Easter Sunday, this sepulchre is carried out of the church, and exposed to public view, when the priest solemnly assures the people, that Christ is risen from the dead, and shows them the picture turned on the other side, which represents Jesus Christ rising out of the sepulchre. The whole congregation embrace each other, and, in transports of joy, shoot off pistols.—Tournefort’s Voyages, Letter III. Broughton.

The anniversary festival appointed in remembrance of the resurrection of our blessed Saviour from the state of death, to which he had subjected himself as an atonement for the sins of men. It is stated by Venerable Bede, that this name was given to this festival at the time when Christianity was first introduced among our Saxon ancestors in this island. Those people, says Bede, worshipped an imaginary deity, called Eostre, whose feast they celebrated every year at this season; the name remained when the worship was altered. Others conceive the name to be derived from an old Saxon word importing rising; Easter day thus signifying the day of resurrection. Easter Sunday is not strictly the anniversary day of our Saviour’s resurrection, but is the day appointed by the Church to be kept in remembrance of that event. After great difference of opinions, it was decided in the Council of Nice that Easter day should be kept on the Sunday following the Jewish feast of the Passover, which Passover is kept on the 14th day, or full moon, of the Jewish month Nisan. At the same time, to prevent all uncertainty in future, it was made a further rule of the Church, that the full moon next to the vernal (or spring) equinox should be taken for the full moon in the month Nisan, and the 21st of March be accounted the vernal equinox. Easter Sunday, therefore, is always the Sunday following the full moon which falls on, or next after, the 21st of March. Easter is thus observed with reference to the feast of the Passover, on account of the typical quality of that day; the annual sacrifice commanded by the Jewish law being regarded as a type of the greater sacrifice of Christ for our redemption, and the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt as a type of our deliverance from sin and death by his merits.

This was the birthday of our Saviour in his state of glory and exaltation, as his nativity was his birthday to his state of humiliation. It was anciently called the “great day,” and “the feast of feasts;” being by eminence “the day which the Lord hath made,” (Ps. cxviii. 24,) for the Fathers unanimously expound that passage of this day, and therefore with them, as with us, that psalm was always part of the office of the day. For the antiquity of the observation of this day innumerable authors might be produced; but the matter is not at all controverted.—L’Estrange.

This is the highest of all feasts, saith Epiphanius: this day Christ opened to us the door of life, being the first-fruits of those that rose from the dead: whose resurrection was our life; for he rose again for our justification. (Rom. iv. 25.)—Bp. Sparrow.

In the primitive times the Christians of all Churches on this day used this morning salutation, “Christ is risen;” to which those who were saluted answered, “Christ is risen indeed;” or else thus, “and hath appeared unto Simon;” a custom still retained in the Greek Church. And our Church, supposing us as eager of the joyful news as they were, is loth to withhold from us long the pleasure of expressing it; and therefore, as soon as the absolution is pronounced, and we are thereby rendered fit for rejoicing, she begins her office of praise with anthems proper to the day, encouraging her members to call upon one another “to keep the feast; for that Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and is also risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept,” &c.—Wheatly.

The first lesson in the morning is the twelfth chapter of Exodus, in which is mentioned the institution of the Passover, proper for this day, the feast of the Passover: for, as St. Augustine observes, “we do in this feast not only call to mind the history of our Saviour’s resurrection, but also celebrate the mystery of ours.” That as Christ this day rose again from death to life, so by Christ, and the virtue of his resurrection, shall we be made alive, and rise from death to life eternal. Christ is therefore our true Passover, whereof the other was a type: the lesson then is proper for the day. So is the first lesson for the evening, (Exod. xiv.,) for it is concerning the Israelites’ deliverance out of Egypt, a type of our deliverance from hell this day by Christ’s glorious resurrection. As that day Israel saw that great work, which the Lord did upon Egypt, (ver. 31,) so this day we see the great conquest over hell and death finished by Christ’s triumphant resurrection from the dead. The second lessons are plain. The Gospel gives us the full evidence of Christ’s resurrection; the Epistle tells us what use we should make of it, “If Christ be risen, seek those things that are above,” &c. The collect prays for grace, to make the use of it which the Epistle directs.

Thus holy Church is careful to teach and instruct all her children in the matter of the feast, preaching Christ’s resurrection to us, both in the type and prophecy out of the Old Testament, and in the history of it out of the New. And she does not only teach us to know what God hath done for us this day, but also she is careful that we may do our duty to God for this his marvellous goodness, commanding and directing us to pray for grace to do our duty, prescribing us excellent forms of adoring and blessing God for his mercy this day, such methods as the Holy Ghost hath set down, in which we may be sure to pray and praise God by the spirit.—Bp. Sparrow. On this day, as on Christmas day, there were formerly [in the First Book of King Edward VI.] two communions, whereof we have retained the former Epistle and Gospel.—Bp. Cosin.

Easter day is a scarlet day at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. In choirs, the Responses and Litanies used to be universally, and in many places are still, solemnly sung to the organ; and the Responses, on the Monday and Tuesday following.—Jebb.